It never rains, it floods

From European Voice's Entre-Nous column

2/8/12, 9:10 PM CET

Updated 4/23/14, 9:15 PM CET

One big happy family at the EEAS?

Whisper this very, very softly, but the members of the EU’s diplomatic corps might one day soon – 15 months after its formation – find themselves housed in the same building in Brussels. Up to now they have been dispersed throughout the EU quarter of Brussels, occupying the offices that they used to work in when they belonged to the European Commission or the secretariat of the Council of Ministers.

This week, however, a first contingent of 25 staff is being moved into the Capital Building, on the Rond-Point Schuman, to be joined by another 25 each working day until they are one big happy family (or the end of April, whichever is sooner).

Since nothing goes smoothly at the European External Action Service, no one should expect the moves to go flawlessly. Only last week, the advance guard in the Capital Building, the 120 staff of the Service for Foreign Policy Instruments, who are Commission staff but will be working alongside the EEAS, had to be moved out, because of a water leak from one of the shops on the ground floor of the office block. The flood reached an electrical installation, which had to be turned off, so there was no light, no heat, and (arguably even worse for the modern-day bureaucrat) no lifts. Whether the EEAS’s hi-tech security equipment can withstand the threat of burst water pipes we will learn during the next thaw, if it ever comes.